Capital
Punishment Pt. 3
2.
Deterrence
At
the mere mention of capital punishment as 'deterrence' a swag of
intellectuals and their acolytes will sagely nod their heads and
chime: “But we all know that deterrence doesn't work!.” Do we
know this? We know it is loudly claimed by social
progressives. But do we know it is true? I think not. However that is
a debate I will in main leave to others.
In
this blog I am looking, like Kant, more at a metaphysics of the
groundwork of morals.
So
far I have established that the only valid foundation for moral
theory is God's moral character. As to insight into God's character:
I have established that the Bible is the best thing we have going for
us.
For
turning insight into answers to modern problems:
a)
I have rejected the fraught method of debate called “proof
text”-ing. This is a method whereby opponents who are usually
equally flawed specimens of humanity scour the Bible to find
convenient verses which seem to support their case. They have already
decided that their case is “right” with little or
no reference to God's moral character. And they hurl these texts
like javelins at each other to try to score points.
b)
In its place I suggest that we need all the resources of the “expert
in the field” - be it jurisprudence, medicine, business or whatever
field of human endeavour we have under the microscope, combined with
the workings of a fully formed moral character. Such a character, or
conscience, can only be formed by long exposure to and habitual
shaping into the character of God as revealed in the person of Christ
and the record of the Bible. In old fashioned words: a god-fearing
person.
My
search in this post is simply this: Does the Bible have anything to
say about “deterrence” as a reason for capital punishment.
I
found the answer in some passages dealing with ancient Israel. Their
situation was different to ours, and so the prescription God gave for
them does not apply to us. That is important to remember! However the
reasons given do have a life of their own.
The
book of Deuteronomy is set as Moses' farewell speech. Part of it
deals with the very real danger to the life of their theocratic
nation of turning away from God to the pagan religions of the land
they are to enter.
In
13:1ff the case of the false prophet is dealt with. Verse 5
instructs: “that prophet or dreamer must be put to death … You
must purge the evil from among you”
In
13:6 ff the issue of loved ones suggesting worshipping other gods is
raised. “If your very own brother or your son or daughter or the
wife you love or your closest friend entices you saying 'let us go
and worship other gods' … Show him no pity, do not spare him or
shield him. You must certainly put him to death. … Then
all Israel will hear and be afraid, and no one among you will do such
an evil thing again.”
Again
in Chapter 21 a command to execute a class of criminal is backed up
by the reason (v.21) “You must purge this evil from among you.
All Israel will hear of it and be afraid.”
No,
these prescriptions do not apply to us, but, and this is the point I
am making: clearly God is saying that one
valid reason for capital
punishment is its
deterrence value.
My
conclusion is that where a crime is so evil and depraved that all
people cannot help but say: “such a thing must not happen in our
land!” then one reason for making it a capital crime is that it
will deter others from committing it.
Next
post: Purging communal guilt
No comments:
Post a Comment